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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Embarrassing musical moments and the winners!

Thanks for playing along with telling your embarrassing music stories...we've ALL got them, even if we play nothing more than the radio.

I thought it wouldn't be fair if I didn't share some of my better bloopers. I still work part time as a musician, so there are endless opportunities to screw up.

My earliest one happened when I was 6 at my first piano recital. I was supposed to play a one hand, one finger version of the Christmas carol, "Good King Wencelas"...memorized. When it was my turn, I reluctantly walked to the piano, curtsied, sat down, stared at the keys, went completely blank, got up, curtsied, and left the piano.

OK, secondly...when I was a very naive freshman in high school, the first chair trombone player, a senior, was named Sam Bates. I was very shy. One day when I walked into the bandroom before class, Sam was sitting with a bunch of the other guys that played in the brass sections. Sam stopped talking with his friends and said, "hello" to me...I returned the greeting, saying, "Good afternoon, Master Bates." I was trying to be cute, not vulgar...I had NO IDEA what I had just said. I don't even think I knew what "masturbate" meant. The boys thought I was hilarious...I was mortified later when I figured out what I had actually said...

Third...as a naive freshman in the Auburn University Marching Band, we were on our first road trip to an away game (LSU, I think...). About 30 minutes before we were to arrive at our pre-game practice location, one of the baritone sax players was walking up and down the isle of the bus, offering brownies. I accepted one, thinking to myself, "those rough guys aren't such big thugs after all..." Well, 30 minutes later I was stoned out of my mind (first exposure to pot, which was apparently baked into the brownies...). There I was, stumbling around the 400-person marching formations, trying to perform the marching drills, remember what end of my clarinet to blow, and not fall on my keester.

Number 4...I was so proud my first rehearsal as the principle clarinetist in the Auburn University Symphony Orchestra. For those of you who don't know, in an orchestra, the clarinet players play two different clarinets, an A clarinet or a Bb clarinet, depending on the key signature/arrangement. Because attaching the reed to the mouthpiece can be so fussy, we often just take the mouthpiece/barrel joint off and put it on the other instrument. The A clarinet is almost identical...just a tiny tad longer than the Bb hornWell, sometimes you have to make this change quickly between songs, sometimes quickly between movements or within the same movement if there's a weird key change. I got all confused in one rehearsal with a ridiculously good-looking visiting conductor and I started playing a solo section on the wrong horn, which sounded AWFUL! It took me a little while to figure it out...I just thought I was horribly out of tune. I kept trying to adjust. I'm SO glad it wasn't during a concert.

Number Five...sometimes when I play hymns in church, I start daydreaming and either stop one verse too soon, or keep playing when everyone else is finished. But that's NOTHIN'! One time when I was singing a solo and accompanying myself on the piano, I forgot to turn the boom mic that was right in front of me to the "on" position before I started. I didn't want to quit and start over...I thought that if I just got to the end of a phrase, I could just quickly turn it on and keep going (hoping no one would notice that I had screwed up). Well, I tried to do it too fast, and I ended up knocking the whole mic and mic stand over, which hit the piano and then the floor with a HUGE, OVERLY-AMPLIFIED double thump.

OK...enough humble pie. Let's announce the 3 winners who each get to pick 4 of my music block patterns!

My daughter helped me get the names in a Bundt pan and she picked the 3 winners.

What wonderful stories you have to tell. In retrospect, I'm sure it's easy to laugh, but not so easy years ago. :).Thanks very much for picking my name! Your patterns are beautiful and your workmanship is amazing.

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About Me

I'm a quilter, musician, wife, mother of a college sophmore, research biochemist (used-to-be), compulsive organizing freak, and a lover of all the history surrounding quilting. I am drawn to all forms of quilting, but particularly like to do hand applique and hand quilting, which I tend to approach with a wacky, weird sense of humor. After dabbling with pattern doodling, I'm offering some patterns for purchase through my online store (see the link above). I have recently returned to my state of origin after 25 years in the Midwest...wasn't really a Midwesterner, but not really a Southerner anymore...in limbo!